Numbers 3:1

Footnotes

1. 1 For significant literature for this chapter, see M. Aberbach and L. Smolar, “Aaron, Jeroboam, and their Golden Calves,” 86 (1967): 129–40; G. Brin, “The First-born in Israel in the Biblical Period” (Ph.D. diss., University of Tel Aviv, 1971); S. H. Hooke, “Theory and Practice of Substitution,” 2 (1952): 2–17; and J. Morgenstern, “A Chapter in the History of the High Priesthood,” 55 (1938): 1–24.
2. 2 The construction is וְאֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת (vé’elleh tolédot), which was traditionally translated “now these are the generations,” much as it was translated throughout the book of Genesis. The noun can refer to records, stories, genealogies, names, and accounts of people. Here it is the recorded genealogical list with assigned posts included. Like Genesis, it is a heading of a section, and not a colophon as some have suggested. It is here similar to Exodus: “these are the names of.” R. K. Harrison, Numbers (), 62, insists that it is a colophon and should end chapter 2, but if that is followed in the Pentateuch, it creates difficulty throughout the narratives. See the discussion by A. P. Ross, Creation and Blessing, 69–74.
3. 3 The expression in the Hebrew text (“in the day of”) is idiomatic for “when.”